Direction: Marco Tulio Giordana
Country: Italy
Italian director Marco Tulio Giordana is most known for an epic historical drama film called The Best of Youth (2003). Now, working from a crippled script by Graziano Diana, the filmmaker delivers an unthrilling film based on a true crime/investigation that took place in a small town in the province of Bergamo, north of Italy, in 2010.
Around 6:30 AM, 13-year-old gymnast Yara Gambirasio (Chiara Bono) vanishes without a trace when walking the short route (less than half a mile) that takes her from the local sport center to her home. The case gets wide media attention, and several possibilities are considered: did she run away from home? Was she kidnapped? Maybe a possible vendetta against her father? A lift from someone she knew?
Three months after, her body was found in a grassy field in an advanced state of decay. The public prosecutor, Letitia Ruggeri (Isabella Ragonese), only has some DNA traces to help her reach the murderer.
Apart from scattered pointed commentary about how the Italian authorities deal with this kind of cases, or the silly dispute between the police forces and the Carabinieri (Italy’s gendarmerie), the film is marked by predictability and ennui, barely scratching the surface of other mystery-crime thrillers with a similar topic. The uncharismatic actors don’t make a strong impression either, and nothing but a big yawn is elicited from this flat, heavy-handed TV-like movie.
